Sequestration Could “Devastate” Natomas Senior Programs

Stanford Settlement serves hot lunch to seniors weekdays at its center. / Photo by Marc Laver

BY BRANDY TUZON BOYD
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz

Federal sequestration cuts threaten to cripple senior programs at Stanford Settlement in Natomas and other services for Sacramento-area seniors.

Photo by Marc Laver

State Department of Aging officials late last month informed Agency on Aging directors that mandated federal funding cuts to senior services will be closer to 9 percent than 6 percent as previously thought.

For Area 4 Agency on Aging this could mean $300,000 in automatic cuts over a three-month period, starting in July – on top of those reductions already made in May and June. Area 4 administers the Older American Act and funds programs in a seven-county region, including Stanford Settlement.

The cuts would be, in a word, “devastating,” said Sister Jeanne Felion, executive director at Stanford Settlement.

Funding from Area 4 Agency on Aging accounts for one-third of the non-profit’s already “lean” $151,000 senior center budget and covers transportation costs, Felion said. Stanford Settlement offers a lunch program as well as health and wellness activities to between 45 and 65 seniors daily with more than two dozen seniors get rides to and from the center located on West El Camino Avenue in the Gardenland/Northgate neighborhood.

“How do I tell seniors, ‘I’m sorry you can’t come to the senior center any more because I can’t pick you up’?” Felion said. “A lot of our seniors don’t have family and those who do, have adult children working and it’s not always easy to get off work. Transportation is key to everything that happens in the senior center. If I can’t provide transportation, daily numbers in the center will be cut in half.”

“How do I tell seniors, ‘I’m sorry you can’t come to the senior center any more because I can’t pick you up’?”

Area 4 Agency on Aging funds several programs in seven different counties, assistant director Will Tift said.

“Because Sacramento County is by far one of the largest counties, by logic most of those reduction must come from (those programs),” he said.

The Area 4 Agency on Aging governing board has the ability to choose which specific programs would get less funding and which would not, Tift said. The governing board is made up of county supervisors or their appointees.

“In that sense service providers are competing with each other for limited dollars,” Tift said. “It sets up an ugly scenario: are we going to take food away from seniors, legal services away from senior … or any of the other things on that list?”

The agency’s governing board is set to take up the task of making cuts at a meeting scheduled next week, on June 14, and again on June 20 if needed.

Other Sacramento-area senior programs that could be impacted by cuts include the Asian Community Center, Senior Legal Hotline, Senior Companion Program, 211, Rebuilding Together and Catholic Charities – just to name a few, Tift said.

“Sequestered dollars are just gone from the budget,” he said. “Many providers are also losing block grant monies and donations are down. It’s kind of an assault from all sides – the small agencies, they are not all going to make it.”

The Stanford Settlement senior center, located at 450 West El Camino Avenue, will have its 21st annual senior health and information fair starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, June 7. The event promises food, music and freebies.